XINHUA – Yang Chuang, a farmer in a remote village in southwest China’s Guizhou Province, harvested over 700 tonnes of pumpkins last year, which were processed into dehydrated pumpkin strips and exported to South Korea.
Yang is reaping the benefits of the contract-based farming, which sees farmers sell their produce wholesale to companies before they are grown. In Yang’s case, his pumpkins are bought by the Nongyao Agricultural Development Co Ltd based in Zhijin County.
In 2023, with technical guidance from the company, Yang trial-planted just two hectares of pumpkins. The company purchased his entire harvest at a guaranteed price, bringing him significant profits.
Encouraged by the success, the 27-year-old expanded his plantation tenfold in 2024, and sold 700 tonnes of pumpkins to the company.
The contract-based farming model not only relieves farmers of sales concerns but also ensures a stable supply of raw materials for processing enterprises.
Nongyao, a key agricultural export enterprise in Zhijin County, temporarily halted production at the end of 2024 after selling out all its pumpkin products. To meet growing demand, the company is actively securing pumpkin supply contracts with partners across Guizhou and neighbouring provinces including Hubei, Sichuan, and Yunnan.
“We’re not worried about foreign trade orders. Our biggest challenge is securing enough raw pumpkins. If we had enough stock, we could keep production running continuously,” said chairman of the company Zeng Aisheng.
Currently, the enterprise has the capacity to produce 7,500 tonnes of pumpkin strips and granules a year, in addition to 3,000 tonnes of other dehydrated vegetables.
In 2024, its exports totalled CNY23.16 million (about USD3.19 million), a staggering 345 per cent increase year-on-year. In the first two months of 2025, the figure had already reached CNY8.75 million.
For 2025, the company has already signed contracts to export pumpkin, chili pepper, tomato and other processed agricultural products to South Korea, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia and other countries.
Known as China’s “hometown of pumpkins”, Zhijin County produces over 100,000 tonnes of pumpkins a year. The industry engages over 30,000 local farmers.
With the support of local governments and leading enterprises like Nongyao, pumpkin growing has expanded from Zhijin to over 10 neighbouring counties.
In 2025, the province plans to scale up contract-based pumpkin cultivation to over 13,000 hectares, with an estimated output of 500,000 tonnes, further advancing the development of an agriculture based on its mountainous terrains.
Zhijin County is among the first pilot areas for “rural foreign trade” in Guizhou. Since 2023, the province has been integrating rural industries with foreign trade, fostering enterprises and products with strong local characteristics and export potential, thereby opening international markets for high-quality agricultural goods.
